The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1059287
B. Umstead State Park to local neighborhoods. Mary Shea has spent the last 10 years working as a missionary in Kenya. "I think things just happen for a reason," said Julie Shea on ending up running for hometown NC State. "Sometimes life just unfolds randomly. On decisions you have to listen to people you trust. "I thought I just wanted to get out of town and go to a new en- vironment. I wanted to go to UCLA and that would have been a really bad move." Shea, who was an All-American from 1977-80, recalled how her former coach Jack Bacheler tried to lighten the expectations for her at NC State, and it worked. "He said, 'We are just happy if you stay where you are at and run just as good as you did in high school [at Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons],'" said Shea, who is one of eight kids. "I thought, 'That stinks.' I think he was trying to deflate the pressure. "I didn't feel any pressure because I felt perfectly comfortable at NC State. My dad taught there and I already knew the campus." Shea was inducted to the NC State Hall of Fame in 2012 and her legacy and achievements are legendary. She was a two-time McKelvin Award winner as the ACC Athlete of the Year in 1980 and 1981, becoming the only woman to win the award before it got split into male and female winners in 1990. Shea also won the 1980 Broderick Cup, which went to the nation's most outstanding women's collegiate athlete. Shea was an AIAW national champion three times in the 5,000-meter run and also won the title once each in the 10,000 and 3,000. Additionally, she was a two-time cross country national champion and was named All-ACC eight times between her two sports. She wound up an eight-time All-American on the track and also won the honor all four years in cross country. Shea was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1993, and her times at NC State, all these years later, still hold up. She has the second-best mark in school history in the 3,000 meters (9:02.4), and ranks third in the 5,000 (15:41.28) and fourth in the 10,000 (33:02.32). The Raleigh native has always remained in her home state and plans to keep it that way with her retirement to the mountains. She remembers at the beginning of the home project how they pitched a tent and she saw her first shooting star in the sky. Bruce had no idea about her athletic background when they first met while she was volunteering at a road race and made sure he got good socks. "It is just getting relaxing because we had to finish our home ourselves," said Shea, who has two sons from her previous mar- riage. "My husband has great building skills and we pretty much finished it together. "We love it here and can never see living outside North Carolina. I'm North Carolina born and bred. It's home. I like to travel, but I couldn't live anywhere else." Shea will always be known as a Wolfpack sports legend and she appreciated her chance to get inducted into the school's Hall of Fame. "It was very nice but I thought 'Gosh, that was years ago,'" Shea said. "I thought to myself, 'Who cares,' but people do care. That will always be a part of me." Shea was originally into swimming before she became a prep distance star at Cardinal Gibbons, where was named the Track and Field News' High School Athlete of the Year in 1977. Her national record for the female high school mile was finally broken in 2012, fittingly by a future NC State distance runner — Wesley Frazier at Raleigh Ravenscroft. Shea remembers how she felt too skinny for swimming, but dis- tance running just felt like a perfect fit when she started to emerge in high school. "My dreams [while in high school] were more about running internationally," she remembered. "I was able to go to the Soviet Union twice and Germany and different places. I really wanted to travel." Shea used swimming to help cross train for running while at NC State and joked how she was so out of her realm compared to the Wolfpack swimmers of that era. "They were very nice and accommodating," she said. Shea earned her graphics design degree in 1982 and her love of Legendary Performer Julie Shea Set The Standard For Distance Running Greatness At NC State WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Julie Shea Sutton Cross Country and Track and Field (1977-80) Age: 59 Living: Mountains in the western part of North Carolina Occupation: Retired Did You Know? The first 26 ACC Athletes of the Year were males, including former NC State greats Dick Christy, Lou Pucillo, Roman Gabriel and David Thompson (twice), until Shea broke through as the first female, capturing the award in 1980 and 1981. She was the only female recipient before the honor was split into two gendered awards in 1990. JANUARY 2019 ■ 43